Pakistani rescuers save man 50 hours after building collapse

MUNIR AHMED

Nov. 06, 2015

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A teenager whose family assumed he was dead was rescued on Friday after 50 hours trapped under the rubble of a four-story factory which collapsed this week in eastern Pakistan, officials said. At least 26 people were killed and 103 injured in the collapse in Lahore.

Identified only as Shahid, the teen was among the unspecified number of missing, government official Mohammad Usman said. He appeared to be in stable condition.

Shahid's cousin Kalim Ullah told local TV reporters that the family received a mutilated body from a hospital a day earlier, held a funeral and buried it. He said the body resembled Shahid and that the family was in mourning until they saw him alive on TV.

Allah Ditta, an uncle of Shahid, also said it was a "miracle" that Shahid is alive and that relatives were rushing to Lahore from a town in the eastern Punjab province to be reunited.

Usman said Shahid crawled out from the rubble without assistance and was able to talk. He said Shahid complained about pain in his foot, but did not have any visible injuries.

The rescue came hours after authorities said hopes were starting to fade for finding more survivors. Jam Sajjad Hussain, a spokesman for the Punjab Emergency Service, said the 400 rescuers saved the lives of 103 workers since Wednesday, when the building suddenly caved in.

The cause of the collapse is yet to be determined. It happened just over a week after a magnitude-7.5 earthquake hit Pakistan, killing 273 people and damaging nearly 75,000 homes.